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Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

Congrats on the title razer. With that level of dominance you should be able to stay safely away from the bottom two in the Lİga Sagres next season. Plus, now you are pro, getting players in should be easier.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

We went quite a bit over our wage budget but still didn't seem to be losing any money over the course of the season, some of the players were just too good for this league but we still had a few problems in certain games so it's clear improvement will be needed for the higher league next year. Our lack of a decent striker was apparent all year as we tried Hislop, Bunting, Templeman and Forrest all in the central striker spot and none of them were convincing. Our main goal scorers came from Midfield.

Key Players:

Chris TownsleyHe was a rock at the back and a decent threat from corners too, should be good enough to step up a league

David Van ZantenThe former Celtic and Hibs full back was probably too good for this league, filled in often on the right sided forward/wing spot and looked decent too.

GuillaumeBeuzelinFormer Hibs and Coventry Midfielder was dominant in midfield and another player too good for this level

Rhian DoddsEx Kilmarnock midfielder, our main reason for winning the league as he was the 1 who stepped up with the goals as our strikers let us down

Have added 3 players to the squad already, Alan Trouten will replace the ageing Scott Murray on the right wing. Ex Rangers striker Steven lennon will hopefully be a striker who can score. Scott Morrison will add competition at both left back and Left Wing. Will look to add more players in pre season, will keep an eye on who Rangers and Celtic release. Could do with a new goalkeeper I think.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

well it looks like my stay in Serie A will be short-lived...7 matches in, still looking for my first point...the lack of significant funding is really hitting me hard, just too difficult to compete...

i may look to try this challenge elsewhere just shortly, i have enjoyed it, but i think the limitations that this board have hit me with are really starting to take effect...shall see how this season pans out first i reckon

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

Montevarchi Calcio Aquila - Italian Serie A 2017/18

Transfers - A transfer budget of 36m was too tempting so I upgraded a number of positions, particularly defence.

EuropeEuropa League - Runner-Up | Final
We stormed through the Qualifying Round and Group Stage with 8 straight wins, notching up 29 goals along the way. The knockout rounds were pretty straightforward too as we dispatched Partizan, Hertha Berlin, Roma and Celtic to reach the final.
Our final opponents were Atlético Madrid and the buildup wasn't kind as I lost both my starting DC's to injury. A poor first half left us a goal behind but a halftime dressing down seemed to do the trick as we took the lead only to be pegged back straight away. Into extra time and we had chances but Atlético got the goal to decide the tie, winning 3-2.

Italian Serie A
Predicted: 9th | Final Position: Winners | Graph
We continued on our end of season form reaching the halfway point of this season unbeaten, 7 points clear at the top and on a run of 35 league games without defeat.
A few too many draws allowed Inter to close the gap but we maintained our unbeaten run, clinching the title with 2 games to spare. Hopes of an unbeaten season were ended in the next game when the team, presumabley still drunk given the ineptness of their performance, capitulated against Sampdoria.

Italian Cup - First Round - The players obviously weren't happy that only a 'Normal Bonus' was offered for the cup. Bloody mercenaries.

Other NewsFinances - A bit of a loss because of my splashing the cash on transfers and the 9.75m spent on an 8000 seat expansion to our year old stadium.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

totally gutted, tried to re-install the game altogether, but unfortunately my angri save appears to be corrupt or something!! 7 seasons or so worth now unplayable

i know i was considering trying the challenge in another country, i guess this is the inspiration i needed to do that...wouldve been nice to be able to go back to it tho...ironic thing was i'd just gotten myself into 16th place...things were looking up

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

Well I had already played through til the middle of October in the new season on Sunday, but I forgot to save the game, and lost it, so on my second attempt through I got into the season with a two leg match against Santa Clara, at home first and we won 3:1, then away we lost 3:1 and so the match went to penalties, it took 28 spot kicks to separate us and in the end they won 14:13 on penalties, a gutting result.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

some great progress still guys... and daemonic, congrats on winning Serie A. looking forward to a good CL run next season.

Originally Posted by The Art of Drowning

Well played on the league title daemonic, where did you get them backgrounds from? They look awesome, would love the same thing for Elgin.

Thanks

I always search the web for a pic of the stadium of the team I choose and replace the default background pic with it. If I can't find a pic I'll find the ground on Google Earth or Maps and do a screen grab and edit it. Had to do that for my dafuge 09 Ramsgate save and as luck would have it the pic on Google Earth was taken while a game was being played so the pitch had teeny players on it

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

This year was almost the opposite to last year in that we had no trouble in finding the back of the net but our defence just didn't handle the step up. We only made the playoffs thanks to a good run at the end but we were stupidly inconsistant and found the step up a lot bigger than I expected

The Playoffs

Semi Final 1st leg - Found ourselves getting battered and as you can see we went 3-0 down, at this point we had nothing to lose so changed to a stupidly attacking formation, it kind of worked and we managed to claw 2 goals back.

Semi Final 2nd leg - We remembered how to play all of a sudden and just never looked like losing, a game where everything clicked.

Final 1st legmanaged to sneak in some amazing free transfers just in time for the Final and it was well worth it as they pretty much won the game on their own. Made me very confident going in to the 2nd leg

Final 2nd legDid what we had to hear, took the lead through our attacking full back and then just played it safe from there. Elgin are going up again!

Key Players:

Steven LennonFinally an answer to our goalscoring problems, he was lethal in front of goal and until David Winters arrived didn't have much competition for the central striker spot

David Van ZantenThe former Celtic and Hibs full back was yet again a great attacking full back, starting to get on a bit though.

Darren McGregor new centre back was very solid and popped up with a few goals at set plays too

Rhian DoddsEx Kilmarnock midfielder, handled the step up a level with ease and provided a lot of assists that were crucial. Great player

Alan Trouten Former Queens Park right winger was a brilliant, better replacement for Scott Murray, contributed with 17 assists over the season and a few goals too

Again there were a lot of new faces in the side, the biggest names in there are obviously Jermaine Beckford, Keigan Parker and Chris Porter. Found that they had all been without a club for about a year and was amazed that they were happy to join me just in time for the latter stages of the playoffs. Michael Stewart and David Winters arrived quite late and had a fantastic impact too.

We've now turned pro for the Scottish First Division and it looks like we should attract a higher calibre of loan players, Rangers have become our parent club and it's about time we got some decent guys in on loan. I think we should survive but anything else would be a bonus

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

Sorry to take this a bit off topic but once I have found background pictures that I need where to I put them? Do i need to create a new folder somewhere?

May as well do my 2nd Season update on here now too.

Not 100% sure if you're using the default skins, but I use the vitreous skin so just replaced My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2010\skins\vitreous\graphics\backgrounds\default.j pg with the background I downloaded.
If you use the default skin i'd check over in the Skinning forum as I'm sure it must have some up before.

Congrats on promotion and going Professional, best of luck next season

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

Well I have no idea what has happened, but after 11 games of the current Liga Vitalis season I have dropped to dead last in the league, I said I would challenge for the title, but that is most likely long gone as we head towards the halfway mark. Hopefully I can avoid relegation and the sack.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

Well just two games later I have climbed 5 spots up the table to 11th, with a 5-1-7 record and 24-18 in goals. Interestingly I am only 5pts off 2nd place, but only 8pts separate 2nd & 16th. Only Santa Clara in 6th have scored more goals with 25, but they have allowed 23. A huge fight is on the cards this season, but the board seem confused...

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

im using the Vitreous skin, just as daemonic said in his earlier post. you just replace My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2010\skins\vitreous\graphics\backgrounds\default.j pg with your own background image

You can't put very attractive can you? it looks like arrogance. Put attractive... she'll see me.

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8,018

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

No I mean when trying the same skin and replacing the default background with a pic of the Elgin ground I have found it doesn't show up with the picture. Just changes the background colour to a kind of very pale green/blue.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

Originally Posted by The Art of Drowning

No I mean when trying the same skin and replacing the default background with a pic of the Elgin ground I have found it doesn't show up with the picture. Just changes the background colour to a kind of very pale green/blue.

Hmm, only thing I can think to check is that its the right format (jpg) and roughly the same size / proportion as the original default.jpg that you replace.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

1st half of the season it looked like it was going to be between us and Hibs for promotion to the SPL but then our highland rivals Inverness came from nowhere and stormed to the title. We had no problems scoring goals, Beckford in particular far too good for this level.

DJoshMcEachranShame it doesn't show his stats for the season, he was a superb goal scoring midfielder on loan from Chelsea and again too good for this level. Amazingly he has agreed to sign next year for free.

A lot of new faces yet again: Smith was great in goal, Suso also deserves a mention. Fantastic on the right. Agreed deals to bring McEachran permenantly and have looked to see Hibs didn't renew contracts for a couple of good players. A few defensive and midfield reinforcements should see us challenging again

A lot of new faces yet again: Kilkenny and Wotherspoon the pick of them. Actually going to make money on transfers now with Mark Kerr leaving for £400k and Chris Humphreys for £500k. We need it too because we've now been plunged into debt thanks to the need for undersoil heating which costs £8.5m! Will be groundsharing at Forres Mechanics in the SPL

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

Yeah they were the best two, and my facilities haven't changed since I first took over so they're not very good. Was quite shocked to have these two as the rest of my intakes have been terrible since I took over.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

Having very little in the way of players capable of playing at this level, a mass clearout was in order to try and get anywhere. Between the summer and the January transfer window, a total of 20 players were moved on, and 19 brought in. Essentially, with the exception of 1 or 2 players, i built a team from scratch. In some ways i think this was beneficial as i decided for this challenge i was going to try a new approach tactic and formation wise, so was able to search for players who fitted into my plans rather than try and build the formation around what was available to me.

With the squad i assembled, i was able to fairly quickly get into pole position in the league, and pretty much maintain it for the whole season, which was way beyond my expectations.

With no money available to spend, not one of the players i brought in cost me a penny, and here is a quick run down of who's who:

Ron-Robert Zieler - i guess people will be familiar with Zieler, released by Man Utd, quickly became No. 1 and held the jersey for the majority of the season

Dominik Picak - Croatian U-21 GK, decent backup for Zieler, but not really called upon

Thierno Bah - Guinean International, can play in a number of positions, but spent most of season in DM/CM

Luca Caldirola - Italian U-21 International captain, only made 10 appearances, but will be a definite starter in upcoming season, released by Inter. Attracting quite a bit of interest, so will be interesting to see if i can keep a hold of him, fingers crossed

honourable mentions have to go to veteran Macedonian striker Goce Toleski, who scored 8 in 18 before i got rid of him in January, and Ali Lukunku, 35 year old DR Congo striker who scored 4 vital goals from the 9 sub appearances, but has also agreed a move on 1st July.

thats the majority of who really featured this season, there are a few others who have already agreed moves away this summer, therefore im not giving them a mention lol

For the upcoming season, i already have a few players hopefully coming in to try and ensure i stay in the division. Also on the lookout for a new Ass man, as my current one, former German captain Bernard Dietz, has announced his retirement from the game this summer.

Code:

Season Division Position Achievements
2010/2011 Third Division 1st Promoted

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

I've spent our 1st year in the SPL with a squad worse than the 1 that took us up, due to the instillation of undersoil heating we were basically ruined financially so I had to sell the likes of Beckford to balance the books. The idea is to sign a lot of players on free's and then eventually sell them on at a profit to make us a bit of money.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

Renato Curi Angolana - Serie C1/B - Christmas 2014

After the transfer embargo of last year I had more problems this Summer; basically with the loan for the new (and slightly unnecessary) stadium, the board cut the wage budget. I was close to the previous one, now I was £4k over it and because of that they were only willing to let me offer players peanuts which obviously players did not like. I managed to get in an 18yo ST released from Udinese who has Serie B potential and the 2 players I signed last season (experienced DM/M C, fantastic 19yo Dutch AML) before this kicked in. Unfortunately I then had to sell to lower the wages before I could even contemplate signing anyone else. Admittedly I was going to sell most of the players I got rid of but I did not like being forced to and it takes time.

So, out went 8 players. Most were very much backups and would hardly have played, however a couple I would not have minded keeping but their high wages meant I had to get rid of them. The most difficult was Melinte (MR), he was one of the highest earners at the club so getting rid of him was not easy, there was interest at £40k but his wage demands were too much, eventually I gave up and just gave him away for free as I was in dire need of signing players. Not ideal.

With this out of the way, I realised a dire need of right sided players, insomuch as I only had 3 of them for 2 positions. I managed to get an MR and DR in but they are not anywhere near as good as the first choices and in any case I was trying to improve DR, not just get a backup in. I also got a very average 3rd choice ML in but he was on cheap wages and will be sold next Summer after hopefully having not played (he has already played 3 matches badly )

We started off by winning a Coppa Italia match (5-0 as well) and narrowly being beaten by a Serie B club in the next round. Serie C1/B started off with a solid 1-0 win over Grossetto before we visited Spal. We were dreadful, they had a ridiculous number of changes (20 shots in total) but somehow we took the lead with our first shot of the whole game. And we were hanging on as well. Until they scored with a total fluke in the last minute of injury time . Another 1-0 home win and we visited Pro Vercelli. And were even worse than against Spal, and this time they took their chances, 0-3 .

Another home win was followed by another dire away performance was followed by another home win. We avoided an away defeat (as it was against the worst team in the division, it should have been a win) and when we got another home win we were up to 3rd. But that was as good as it got. An unlucky 0-1 at a good Crotone side was followed by my ML getting a red card in the 11th minute at home to Celano, from then on we were battered and lucky to only lose 0-1. A third game without a goal and I was concerned. When an average Bassano side took the lead at our place I was very concerned, we managed to get an equaliser but really we should be winning those matches. 3 straight away matches brought us 3 goals but unfortunately 0 points; against Varese we were 0-3 down with 10 men after 20 minutes which is not ideal but we were unlucky not to get anything against Mantova or Rimini (we even took the lead in this one ). We closed off the year with a spirited draw at home to relegated Sassuolo.

8 games, 2 points have dropped from the heights of 3rd to the lows of 13th and only being out of the playouts as we have beaten Manfredonia. Basically a shambles. We have problems. One of which is scoring goals, never before in CM/FM have gone so far into a season averaging less than a goal per match. Another one is holding onto leads, several have been converted nicely into draws and defeats so far. We should be too good to go down but clearly my attention is now focused on the bottom rather than the top of the league. Will have another in-depth look at our tactics as it is pretty obvious that something is not right here.

The Summer signings have not been fantastic, apart from the sending off the ML has played well but both the DM/M C and the supposedly good ST have been average so far.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

Pre-Season was all about improving the squad were I could. This wasn't as much as i had hoped for as i couldn't afford the wages that a lot of the players were asking for. The main players that i did manage to bring in were Luca Milan, Piet Velthuizen, Pedro and Jeroen Gobel.
Despite the increase in the stature of the club we were not going to be getting any improvement in the gate receipts as we were already at full capacity for most games last year and apparently the council will not allow us planning permission to expand the stadium.

The Season

The season started off well enough as we quickly found ourselves holding a top 10 position in the league. Our young striker Daniel started the season in terrific form and early on found himself at the top of the goalscoring charts.
My new keeper Velthuizen who i had paid 1.7m for in the summer wasn't doing as well as i had hoped and i had been after Carlos Kameni all through the summer but he was asking for too much money. His demands must have come down when he still didn't have a club in September. So with his reduced wage demands I quickly signed him up despite knowing I couldn't register him for several weeks in the league. His performances in the cup told me he was my new number 1 GK. Speaking of the cup we managed to get through to the 5th round before we went out against Villarreal 4-2 on aggregate and after extra time.

Once December and January came around the season improved a lot as Kameni could now play and he was truly superb keeping us in the hunt in so many games and gaining several points for us all on his own. It was at this point of the season I realised how much the club was losing because of the increased wage bill compared to the non-increase in the gate receipts. So to balance the books a bit i went on a bit of a selling spree and sold a lot of players that hadn't played or had only featured once or twice.

After 24 games we had found ourselves in the totally unexpected position of 4th place and fighting for a champions league spot. We held onto fourth place for 8 games but a combination of injuries, tired players and facing a lot of the better teams in the league meant that we slipped down the table a bit at the end of the season, eventually finishing in 6th place.

Totally thrilled with how the season went and even more please as we qualified for the Euro Cup. We were even voted the Most Improved Team.

The Players

Carlos Kameni - GK - Brought in on a free in September. He was well worth the wait and every penny that i pay for his wages. Carlos was truly exceptional and was one of the main reasons we did so well in the league. 7.36 Average Rating for a goalkeeper is the highest I have ever had! Piet Velthuizen - GK - Played as my 1st choice keeper at the start of the season but I was unconvinced by him and the arrival of Kameni saw him relegated to the bench.Ricardo Alonso - DLC - This season saw another step up in class from this amazing kid. He had an awesome season which saw him being my first player to be picked in the Liga BBVA Team of the Season.Luca Milan - DL - Brought in on a free Luca showed he at least has the potential to be a good signing for the club in the future. I could have used him more but he was fighting with Alonso at left back but i feel he will develop into a quality player.Luca Bianco - DR - My main right back once again as he played in the majority of the games. Another player to get an average rating of above 7.Marcio - DRC - One of my key defenders who had a great season and played in most of the games.Antonio - DRLC - Another of my main defenders who played in most of the games. I would say that compared to last year he is one of the most improved players in the squad.Silvano Raggio Garibaldi - DMC/MC - Used in these 2 positions on a regular basis at the start of the season but his starting appearances dwindled towards the end of the season as new signing Jorge played more often. Pele - DMC - Pele was brought in on a free to challenge for the defensive midfield spot but in the end he only played in a handful of games and i will be looking to offload him in the summer.Jorge - DMC - I bought Jorge for 2.5m from Cruzeiro in January as he was recommended by one of my scouts. He looks like a great prospect for the future and i played him quite a bit in the second half of the season to give him the experience he needs.Hamid Zeroual - DMC - Used him more often than i have in previous seasons. I am hoping he has the potential to improve further but his first team opportunities may be limited as i have several players fighting over this position.Francesco Viola - MC - One of the big surprises this season as Francesco played like he had done in Liga Adelante and fully justified the number of games he got this season as he contributed with 7 goals and 9 assists. Zoltan Bagi - AMR - What a season Zoltan had. He certainly adapted better to the league this season than last and was one of my best players. His 7 goals was a good contribution but his 17 assists were even better.Pedro - AMRL - Brought in on a free as he was supposed to be a big improvement for the left wing but he didn't settle into the team well at the start of the season and was generally unhappy. Thankfully he improved a lot towards the end of the season. Expect better from him next season.Mihajlo Zaric - AML - Played in more games than I expected due to the poor start to the season Pedro had. He didn't provide too much and i will be looking at netting a tidy profit in the summer. Joaquim Romao - AMLC - Joaquim was used mainly as a sub this season as he hasn't developed as I had initially hoped. I will be looking for someone a bit better in the summer if anyone wants the wages i can offer!Jereon Gobel - ST - At 2.7m he is the most expensive player bought in the clubs history. He had a good first season as he notched up 10 league goals and assists.Jean-Pierre Kremer - ST - He was used as and when he was needed but he lacks the quality needed to be a regular first team player for the team.Daniel - ST - What a superstar I have on my hands here. Hope to keep hold of him for next season but he has several clubs chasing him. His season tally of 18 goals left him fourth highest goalscorer in the league. He also managed to achieve 2nd in the Spanish Goalscorer.

Next Seasons Aims

My aims for the upcoming season is for a respectable showing in our first European campaign and to also try and qualify for it the season after as well. I would like to try and get the finances sorted out but i feel that this is going to be impossible with only 6400 tickets being sold each week.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

A thoroughly unenjoyable season, we were bloody awful and only survived thanks to a last day 0-0 draw at bottom club Kilmarnock. We sold a lot of players including Beckford and many of our new players left us in Jan as we just desperatley needed money. It led to us being a poor side.

3 Players to maybe build around the next year

Dan RamseyYouth team product, been with us from the start and is finally looking like a decent player at this level. I trained him to be a left back too for emergency cover

Josh McEachranTied him down to a long term deal, I hope he stays with us forever.

marko Vejinovic Dutch Free transfer was decent in midfield, not sure whether I will cash in or build around him.

As I said many of the new players left in Jan to make a bit of money, the plan is to sell even more and only have about 4 of this squad left for next year. Need to start scouting all over the world and try and bring better quality players to Elgin. Tha plan is to check just about every big club in the world to see who they have released. The aim has to be to survive again but just to do it in a more comfortable fashion.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

Been way to long since I commented in here. I've only read through half of what's new since I was last active, but it's great to see so much progress. There's to much to comment on it all so I'll just say good luck to everyone! I see there's some people getting close to a big finale And a congrats to cookie15 on finishing it.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

What a difference a year makes, thanks to the profit made in transfers last year and the ability to spread payments over 48 months we were able to build a decent side here. A few of them are far too good for us and they're already attracting attention from bigger clubs. Still got a lot of money in the bank but I imagine that will get eaten away by the long term transfers. Friendly Leagues against big clubs keep us ticking over for now.

Too Many players to mention but I'll try and do a top 3

GabrielHe is ace and can only get better, got big clubs sniffing around him already

Josh McEachranThought i'd show his performances so far, still only young.

Silvio The genuine top class keeper we had been missing, again he could be here for years if we can keep bigger clubs off him.

Big spenders this year and it was worth it, the main transfers missing off of that screenie are just more free players who were released from the big clubs. Most of them I signed with the idea of developing them and then selling them on for a profit.

The plan now has to be to topple the old firm, might take a few years though

You can't put very attractive can you? it looks like arrogance. Put attractive... she'll see me.

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8,018

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

Originally Posted by minisav

Impressive stuff

I was going to suggest top 6 after last season but didn't want to sound too optimistic!

Good luck in Europe, the hardest part of doing the challenge in Scotland imo.

Thanks, makes it hard for a side like ours competing on all fronts. Look what happened to Rangers irl when they got to the Uefa Cup final. Think I will be resting a few players for the european games, league takes priority for now.

You can't put very attractive can you? it looks like arrogance. Put attractive... she'll see me.

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8,018

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

Originally Posted by minisav

Rangers were incredibly lucky to be there tbf. Celtic were unlucky not to win it when they reached the final though.

Yeah, probably a good tactic until you can maybe sneak a CL spot or 2 so you have the money to have a bigger squad.

Rangers got there on the back of brilliant defensive performances and a lot of luck, cost them in the league though with too many games in not much time. Like you say I'd rather wait until if and when we establish ourselves as a team who can qualify for the Champions League.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

Well done

Typically my run ended the game after. Although a 1-1 draw against Bayern is hardly a poor result. Won my CL Group by a large margin. Still got a game left to play in that. Hold a 7 point lead in the league after 13 games.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

A great season again. Pity we got beat with 3 games to go. It would have been nice to have gone unbeaten. German Cup was quite a breeze getting 4 teams in the division below or more including Koln in the final.

The Champions Cup

With finishing first in the league we went straight into the group stages. Sneaking an equaliser just before half time of the first match allowed us to win 2-1 and my confidence started to rise. Then we beat Chelsea at home. Other results started to go our way too. Chelsea managed to lose to Atletico and Steau away whilst I continued to win. It was sealed with a game to go where we lost to Chelsea away.

Knockout stages I got Man Utd again! Despite being 1-0 up in the first leg away and having an extra man we let them score. I was quite worried after last season but we were at home. We're quite the fortress there in Europe having beaten the likes of Man Utd and Barcelona there. We took them home and thrashed them 5-1 to get our revenge fully.

Getting Shakhtar in the next round pleased me. It was hardly a glamour tie but they are weaker than the other teams. A 4-1 win away proved this. We finished the job by winning 1-0 at home.

Up next in the Semi-Final were Olympique de Marseilles. I couldn't be sure of their strength and I was quite worried. Then the first leg went pretty well but they did get an away goal as we won 2-1. The second leg was uneventful except for Hernanes getting himself sent off with 35 minutes to go.

The final was going to be a re-match of some sorts. Last season we came against this team in the Euro Super Cup and we won 2-1. Despite this, I still wasn't confident. They were going for their 3rd consecutive Champions Cup trophy. We had work to do with Hernanes and another suspended.

With the final being played in my homeland at the scum's stadium of Ibrox I was in familiar territory. It didn't start well. Diego popped up in the 38th minute to put them 1-0 up. Bugger. Typically of a final the game was incredibly tentative. The rest of the half passed by too quickly for my liking.

Half Time Score: Darmstadt 0 - 1 Juventus

I was not enjoying this. The 2nd half was much of the same and my head went into my hands when Bergamo scored their 2nd. I was close to tears when Marino added to their rout in the 85th minute. Never say die I believe is the saying. My players must have been screaming it. Dentinho grabbed what I thought was a mere consolation. Krivets decided to add to our 'too little, too late' with a 2nd in the 90th minute. A minute later the heroic Guidoni decided to get our 3rd. Juventus must have been sick. I would if they'd done what we had done. Here comes extra time I thought.

Full Time Score: Darmstadt 3 - 3 Juventus

Extra time was a non-event. Boring, dull, tentative and negative. Both teams too afraid to go forward. I wasn't really looking forward to penalties if I'm to be honest. However, in the 119th minute, that man, Guidoni, decided he would finish this game off once and for all!

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

In a footballing sense we were awful this year but we survived. Progress is going to be tough as the stadium only holds 2500, plus it seems the gypsy camp it is located in is not much of a draw for top quality players.

The aim for the off-season are to improve the squad especially in defence.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

We were 9 points clear at 1 point but at the crucial stage of the season pretty much all of my players decided to be dicks and started kicking up a fuss about wanting to play for bigger clubs, in the end we limped to the title and even bottled the last game with a 2-2 draw, thankfuly Rangers only drew as well.

Key Players

Jorge RiveraFormed an awesome partnership at the back with young Brazilian Gabriel, the pair of them moaned a lot and will leave for big money.

Josh McEachranSurprise Surprise but he was brilliant again, one of the few not moaning.

Dan Ramsay Our only player to make it from our youth team so far, came through in the 2nd division and is still class at the top.

Vinicius Great goal scorer and will probably go on to be one of the best players in the world, he is leaving as well though because he is another fussy **** and wont sign a new contract.

So it's great that we've won the league but it's come at a price, pretty much have to replace my entire team next year, luckily we can make a lot of money on the moaning guys to fund the replacements but it's pretty annoying to have to sell our best players as well as the fringe players I dont want

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

Originally Posted by The Art of Drowning

I know what you mean about clubs coming after your players, i'll mention more on that in my update in a sec. You gunna try another of the challenges?

Yes I definitely will. Already have a save that I could do the extended Dafuge one with. I may go for Dafuge's one as I enjoyed it last year. Also could go back to my old haunt of the South American one. Ah the choices.

Sticking with my Aberdeen game before I make the choice!

And congrats on winning the league. Good to see the Dons 3rd!

Originally Posted by Razer82

Minisav - Congratulations on completing the challenge.

Well done to the guys getting promoted - progress is always a good thing.

I need to get myself together, got 2 completed seasons with Fafe to post about, will look at getting those done over the weekend.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

In our second attempt at survival in Ligue 1, we were not only equipped with an improved squad, but more importantly, more money. I spent just under 5M in transfers this season, I payed a bit over the odds for a few players, but you have to if you want decent players unfortunately. It was a massive season in the club's history, not only did we survive in Ligue 1 for the first time in history, we also reached the French Cup quarter final for the first time in history. I'm not sure what will happen next season, I presume that we will have even more money to spend, which hopefully means I'll be able to bring in some better players and add more depth/quality to the side. It could also mean that the board decide to spend all of our money on stadium improvements, I wouldn't mind if they improved the training/youth facilities though.

Onze de départ

GK: Phillippe Brun, 29, Ivory Coast - Mathieu Dreyer was no longer good enough, so I brought in a decent Goalkeeper for 1.4M. It's also quite interesting to note that he used to play for us when we were in the French National division.DR: Bart Theis, 22, Belgium - A new right back signed for 1M. He's a pretty decent player and in my opinion worth the 1M I paid.DL: Giacomo De Bellis, 20, Italy *ON LOAN*- I couldn't find a decent left back to bring in, so I brought a player in on loan. He was very good and would be a good player for most teams in Ligue 1, wont be able to bring him on a permanent basis though.

DC: Alexandr Mit'kin, 28, Ukraine - The current record signing, I payed 1.7M to Lyon for him. He's an experienced pro, a good player for this division and well worth the 1.7M.
DC: Edgardo Flores, 29, Honduras - This season rotated to the center of defence, he's not my ideal man in this position and I'd like to bring someone new in next season. He'd be a good rotational/backup player though.

MR: Jérôme Hebert, 22, Français - Another good season for the homegrown hero.
ML: Gianmarco Gigli, 27, Italy - I didn't think he'd be able to make the step up to Ligue 1, but to be fair he did quite well. I might possibly sign a replacement for him though.
MC: Sergio Marbus, 31, Netherlands - In his fifth season as captain of the club, Sergio Marbus set a good example. He's probably only going to get worse from now on, but I'll continue to play him if he's good enough.
MC: Matthieu Causse, 27, Français - The long time central midfielder didn't have the best of seasons this year, and failed to really stand out that much. He had a decent pass ratio though, it was the 5th best in the league.

ST: Chakib Saber, 27, Morrocco - The second best striker had a decent season, not starting as many games as he would have wanted though. His 15 goals in 18 starts is pretty impressive though.
ST: Razvan Ionica, 26, Romania - After his amazing goal return last season, I had high expectations. Although 19 goals in 30 games doesn't sound very impressive, he was the 4th best goal scorer in all of Ligue 1.

-
Official Fans Player of the Year - Razvan Ionica
Unofficial Young Player of the Year - Giacomo De Bellis

A series of friendlies against Liga Sagres sides started the season & 3 defeats didn’t leave me with much hope for the rest of the season for which we’re already predicted as relegation candidates.

Back to back defeats gave us a poor start to the season, but 3 games unbeaten changed our form from bad to indifferent. The form seemed to stay that way for the rest of the season as we were never able to record more than 2 consecutive league wins. As expected throughout the season we were not able to compete with the real big sides in the league, Sporting, Porto, Benfica & Braga all beating us each time we met. Towards the end of the season we actually had a chance of making it into Europe at the first time of asking but we needed a win in the final game with other results going our way. Neither happened & we fell short by just one league place.

This inability to compete with the big boys also led to our exits in both cups. After good wins in the first 3 rounds of the Portuguese Cup we faced Braga who easily defeated us to progress.

The League Cup saw us straight into 2nd Round Group Stage by virtue of being in Liga Sagres. 2 wins eased us into the 3rd Round. Sporting put an end to our hopes of getting any further by beating us 3-0 in the first game of the round.

Aims for Next SeasonQualify for Europe – Nearly made it at the first attempt so with a bit of good form next year we could get there.Improve Finances - We've been in debt all season due to the all the signings fees from turning pro. This debt could well impact transfers next season.

Re: FM10 Small Club to Big Club Big Euro Nation Challenge

minisav - Congrats on completion. Well done! The Art of Drowning - Grats on the league title. Do you go into the group stages of CL right away? If not I hope you get a lucky draw and get in, good money.PaulHartman71 - Congrats on staying up this time. Well deserved! That's a great long game you have there, you still enjoying it more and more after so many seasons?yababo - Congrats on staying up. Holland always interested me somehow, I always start every new FM with Ajax to get a feel for the game. Hope you'll keep it up and become as big as Ajax was in the early 70s. Razer82 - That's a great first season up there. Nice to see Fafe doing well.Liverbird93 - Good luck in Germany.